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Vajpayee was the great synthesizer, a democrat par excellence, founder and practitioner of ‘coalition dharma’

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Vajpayee was the great synthesizer, a democrat par excellence, founder and practitioner of ‘coalition dharma’

Do great men pass away, or do they live on forever, their towering legacy dwarfing the mortality of time? In the evolution of modern India, Atal ji was one such colossus.

Firstly, he was the great synthesizer. In this role, although an RSS member since 15 and a pracharak at 23, he will be remembered for his consistent attempt to broaden the appeal of BJP, founded in 1980 to replace the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, of which too he was a founder member. It was precisely because of his eclectic world view and expansive personality that he distanced himself from RSS’s dominant profile as an aggressive, ultra-right, secretive, insular, Hindu upper caste dominated and intolerant entity.

Some critics dismissed his image as an inclusive statesman, as a ‘mukhauta’, a facade to be tactically invoked for political reasons. But, it is a matter of historical record that when he became PM for a full term from 1998 to 2004 – the first non-Congress leader to do so – he earned the ire of radical Hindutva outfits like the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and even RSS, for being less than enthusiastic in pushing communal agendas.

File photo

Nor was Vajpayee particularly impressed with the swadeshi ideology RSS espoused. He believed that India must endeavour to be self-reliant, but liberal economic policies – including an openness to foreign investment and privatisation – were necessary for the economy. In conformity with his vision of a modern India, he ushered in the ambitious Golden Quadrilateral Project, connecting the cities of Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai through a national expressway. At the same time, he also successfully implemented the flagship Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, a transformative programme at the village level.

Secondly, Vajpayee had the skills and the human touch to run a coalition. He coined the phrase ‘coalition dharma’, which essentially meant that all alliance parties must be given due respect. Persuasion and not fiat, tact and not diktat, were his guiding mantras. There is an apocryphal story – but one vouched for by many – of how he put this into practice.

On one occasion when TMC’s Mamata Banerjee, then a member of NDA, needed to be pacified, Vajpayee met her in Kolkata. But he did not ask her to come to Raj Bhavan where he was staying. Instead, he said he would go to her house to meet her. Once there, he spent most of the time talking to Mamata’s mother, enquiring about her health, and mentioning in passing, that her very talented daughter was sometimes stubborn, an assessment with which the elderly lady completely agreed with. The mission was accomplished, with Mamata realising that she was dealing with an avuncular well-wisher, and not merely the leader of the largest party in the coalition.

Thirdly, he was a democrat par excellence. His oratorical skills were legendary, and he gave to Hindi a new respect internationally, by becoming the first PM to address the UN in our national language. While bowing to democratic decorum he was a decisive leader, with the courage to take tough decisions. Within one month of becoming PM in 1998 he authorised the Pokharan test, making India a nuclear weapon power. A nationalist to the core, he could effortlessly rise above partisan politics when the country needed unity not confrontation, as he did during the 1971 war with Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh. Not surprisingly, Jawaharlal Nehru saw in him a future PM of India, and Manmohan Singh described him as the Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics.

Lastly – and perhaps most importantly – he was a good human being, accessible to all, with a ready laugh and an embrace. He did not suffer from the vice of most politicians of our times of ‘uni-dimensionality’, where they live entirely at the level of sama, dama, danda, bheda. He loved music, classical dance, the fine arts, poetry, good food and drink, truly a man of the masses. As he wrote in one of his poems:

“What matters is this: /That there must be expanse with height, /So that a man /Is not fixed and dead as a stump, /But blends in and belongs with others, /Winning some to his cause /Falling in step with others … /My Lord! /Never place me so high, /That I cannot embrace /Those who are not my own.”